He walked alongside her, back straight, gaze fixed ahead. She barely came up to his shoulder. He didn’t speak, and the silence hung heavily over them both.
Freya had never enjoyed silence. She always felt obliged to saysomething, to break the quiet, to keep the conversation going. Silence was dangerous because you never knew where your thoughts were going to go.
“Do ye generally visit convents after dark, then?” she asked at last.
He shot her a quick glance. “Only if I need to.”
“And ye say the Abbess will see ye?”
“Aye, I reckon she will. She knows me, and she knows I wouldn’t be here without a good reason.”
“What’s the reason?”
Brendan hesitated, glancing down at her. “None of yer concern.”
“It is a bit, if it’s related to the convent. The place I’m living in.”
“For now.”
“For now,” she conceded. “But still.”
Brendan said nothing. He turned on his heel, striding ahead. She was forced to jog to keep up with him.
“If ye know where ye are going,” she called after him, “Why do I have to show ye around?”
“It’s for the look of the thing. Men aren’t allowed in nunneries.”
Freya snorted, puffing for breath already. “I’m getting the feeling that the nuns in this convent do a lot of things they aren’t meant to do.”
Brendan shot a look back at her over his shoulder. “Ye have no idea, lassie.”
They reached the closed door which led to the Abbess’ office, a thin line of light coming from underneath, indicating that the woman was inside. Suddenly nervous, Freya knocked on the door.
“Who is it?” came the voice from within.
“There’s a man here to see ye, Abbess.”
A pause. “A man?” the Abbess echoed, almost disbelieving.
“It’s Brendan. Uh, I don’t know his second name. The man who brings the?—”
The door opened without warning, and Freya flinched back. The Abbess stood there, face impassive. She glanced over Freya’s shoulder at Brendan.
“Come in,” she said shortly. “Freya, do me the kindness of waiting here until we’ve finished our conversation, then ye can escort Brendan out. He cannot walk around the convent unaccompanied.”
Without giving Freya a chance to respond, the Abbess jerked her head, summoning Brendan into the study, and closed the door firmly in her face.
Well. That felt rude,Freya thought. It hardly mattered, though. She shuffled over to one of the chairs in the waiting area, and settled herself down.
Minutes ticked by, and with nothing at all to do but stare at the walls and entertain herself with her own thoughts, Freya began to get bored. What was worse, she started tothink.
What was so important? Sister Rosemary let him in right away. Brendan said he was a sort of protector to the convent. Does that mean that something is wrong?
It can’t be a coincidence that whatever is going wrong happened right after I got here.
Could Laird Grahame have found me already?
Fear fizzled through her. Before she knew what she was doing, Freya was on her feet, tiptoeing towards the door.
